Two
New York Times best-selling authors unveil new research showing what meditation can really do for the brain. In the last 20 years, meditation and mindfulness have gone from being kind of cool to becoming an omnipresent Band-Aid for fixing everything from your weight to your relationship to your achievement level. Unveiling here the kind of cutting-edge research that has made them giants in their fields, Daniel Goleman and Richard J Davidson show us the truth about what meditation can really do for us.

How Not to Die: Discover the foods scientifically proven to prevent and reverse disease

Why rely on drugs and surgery to cure you of life-threatening disease when the right decisions can prevent you from falling ill to begin with? How Not to Die gives effective, scientifically proven nutritional advice to prevent our biggest killers - heart disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes - and reveals the astounding health benefits that simple dietary choices can provide.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

What are the most valuable things that everyone should know? Acclaimed clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson has influenced the modern understanding of personality, and now he has become one of the world's most popular public thinkers. In this book, he provides 12 profound and practical principles for how to live a meaningful life, from setting your house in order before criticising others to comparing yourself to who you were yesterday, not someone else today.

How to Be Human: The Manual

With a little help from a monk (who tells us how our mind works) and a neuroscientist (who tells us how our brain works), Ruby Wax answers every question you've ever had about evolution, thoughts, emotions, the body, addictions, relationships, sex, kids, the future and compassion. Filled with witty anecdotes from Ruby's own life, and backed up by smart science and practical mindfulness exercises,
How to be Human is the only manual you need to help you upgrade your mind as much as you've upgraded your iPhone.

A Short History of Drunkenness

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of A Short History of Drunkenness by Mark Forsyth, read by Richard Hughes. Almost every culture on earth has drink, and where there's drink there's drunkenness. But in every age and in every place drunkenness is a little bit different. It can be religious, it can be sexual, it can be the duty of kings or the relief of peasants. It can be an offering to the ancestors or a way of marking the end of a day's work. It can send you to sleep or send you into battle.

Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do

When psychologists try to understand the way our minds work, they frequently come to a conclusion that may seem startling: people often make decisions without having given them much thought - or, more precisely, before they have thought about them consciously. When we decide how to vote, what to buy, where to go on vacation and myriad other things, unconscious thoughts that we are not even aware of typically play a big role.

The 4 Pillar Plan: How to Relax, Eat, Move and Sleep Your Way to a Longer, Healthier Life

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of
The 4 Pillar Plan, written and read by Dr Rangan Chatterjee. In
The 4 Pillar Plan, Dr Rangan Chatterjee presents us with an incredibly simple framework for taking control of our health. He divides health into four pillars: diet, rest, sleep and movement. By making small, easily achievable changes in each of these key areas, you can find and maintain good health - and avoid illness.

Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions

From the New York Times best-selling author of Chasing the Scream, a radically new way of thinking about depression and anxiety. What really causes depression and anxiety - and how can we really solve them?

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of
Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker, read by Arthur Morey. Is modernity really failing? Or have we failed to appreciate progress and the ideals that make it possible? If you follow the headlines, the world in the 21st century appears to be sinking into chaos, hatred and irrationality. Yet, as Steven Pinker shows, if you follow the trendlines, you discover that our lives have become longer, healthier, safer and more prosperous - not just in the West but worldwide.

Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics

If you've ever wondered why Putin is so obsessed with Crimea, why the USA was destined to become a global superpower or why China's power base continues to expand ever outwards, the answers are all here. In 10 chapters, using essays and occasionally the personal experiences of the widely travelled author, Prisoners of Geography looks at the past, present and future to offer an essential insight into one of the major factors that determines world history.

Unique Pseudonym says:"Step back and look at politics through a new lens"

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

Everyone knows that timing is everything. But we don't know much about timing itself. Our lives are a never-ending stream of 'when' decisions: when to start a business, schedule a class, get serious about a person. Yet we make those decisions based on intuition and guesswork. Timing, it's often assumed, is an art; in When, Pink shows that timing is, in fact, a science. Drawing on a rich trove of research from psychology, biology and economics, Pink reveals how best to live, work and succeed.

Fire and Fury

The first nine months of Donald Trump's term were stormy, outrageous - and absolutely mesmerising. Now, thanks to his deep access to the West Wing, best-selling author Michael Wolff tells the riveting story of how Trump launched a tenure as volatile and fiery as the man himself. In this explosive audiobook, Wolff provides a wealth of new details about the chaos in the Oval Office.

At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails

Paris, near the turn of 1933. Three young friends meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and their friend Raymond Aron, who opens their eyes to a radical new way of thinking. Pointing to his drink, he says, 'You can make philosophy out of this cocktail!'

The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures

The Strange Order of Things is a pathbreaking investigation into homeostasis, the condition that regulates human physiology within the range that makes possible not only the survival but also the flourishing of life. Antonio Damasio makes clear that we descend biologically, psychologically, and even socially from a long lineage that begins with single living cells; that our minds and cultures are linked by an invisible thread to the ways and means of ancient unicellular life and other primitive life-forms.

Award-winning science writer David Adam reveals how frontier neuroscience can enhance your intelligence. What if the route to better brain power is not hard work or thousands of hours of practice but to simply swallow a pill? In
The Genius Within, best-selling author David Adam explores the groundbreaking neuroscience of cognitive enhancement.

Sleep: The Myth of 8 Hours, the Power of Naps...and the New Plan to Recharge Your Body and Mind

One third of our lives is spent trying to sleep. Most us have disturbed, restless nights and rely on a cocktail of caffeine and sugar to drag us through the day. Yet the hours we spend in bed shape our moods, motivation and decision-making skills - defining our performance in work, at home and while keeping fit. We need a new approach to sleep. In this groundbreaking audiobook, Nick Littlehales, elite sleep coach to some of the world's leading sports stars and teams, lays bare his strategies.

Your Brain Knows More Than You Think

Our brains are more powerful than we ever realised. Too often, we assume that people's natures are fixed, immutable. For sufferers of depression, anxiety, ADHD, addiction, or the after-effects of stroke, this can be a difficult thought. For those with extreme conditions, such as locked-in syndrome or psychopathy, it can feel as if there is no hope at all. However, in Your Brain Knows More Than You Think, leading neurobiologist Niels Birbaumer turns these assumptions on their head.

A Life Worth Breathing: A Yoga Master's Handbook of Strength, Grace, and Healing

We can do more with this life. We all know it, we all wish for it, but just how to do itthat eludes us. In his new book,
A Life Worth Breathing, internationally renowned yoga teacher and spiritual philosopher Max Strom shows us the way. His groundbreaking book reaches past expected dogma in a language that is vital, inspired, and accessible. Strom leads us on a journey of self-discovery as we excavate our past in order to have a better understanding of our present.

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics

Richard H. Thaler has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central agents in the economy are humans - predictable, error-prone individuals. Misbehaving is his arresting, frequently hilarious account of the struggle to bring an academic discipline back down to earth - and change the way we think about economics, ourselves, and our world.

Gut

The key to living a happier, healthier life is inside us. Our gut is almost as important to us as our brain or our heart, yet we know very little about how it works. In Gut, Giulia Enders shows that rather than the utilitarian and - let's be honest - somewhat embarrassing body part we imagine it to be, it is one of the most complex, important, and even miraculous parts of our anatomy.

Sapiens

Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it. Us. We are the most advanced and most destructive animals ever to have lived. What makes us brilliant? What makes us deadly? What makes us sapiens? In this bold and provocative audiobook, Yuval Noah Harari explores who we are, how we got here, and where we're going.

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life. The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. If machine brains surpassed human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become extremely powerful - possibly beyond our control.

Publisher's Summary

The Top Ten Sunday Times Best SellerTLS, Observer, Sunday Times, FT, Guardian, Daily Mail and Evening Standard Books of the Year 2017

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, read by John Sackville.

Includes a bonus PDF of graphs and diagrams.

Sleep is one of the most important aspects of our life, health and longevity and yet it is increasingly neglected in twenty-first-century society, with devastating consequences: every major disease in the developed world - Alzheimer's, cancer, obesity, diabetes - has very strong causal links to deficient sleep.

Until very recently, science had no answer to the question of why we sleep, or what good it served, or why its absence is so damaging to our health. Compared to the other basic drives in life - eating, drinking, and reproducing - the purpose of sleep remained elusive.

Now, in this book, the first of its kind written by a scientific expert, Professor Matthew Walker explores twenty years of cutting-edge research to solve the mystery of why sleep matters. Looking at creatures from across the animal kingdom as well as major human studies, Why We Sleep delves in to everything from what really happens during REM sleep to how caffeine and alcohol affect sleep and why our sleep patterns change across a lifetime, transforming our appreciation of the extraordinary phenomenon that safeguards our existence.

Sorting out my sleep patterns has been my main New Years resolution as I have come to the conclusion that most other things in my life will improve greatly once this is achieved. But I hadn't realised the vast catalogue of problems sleep deprivation is causing in the developed world. And that almost all of us will be suffering from it to some degree. This book is both very interesting in explaining the mechanism of sleep, and everything in our modern lives that have an influence on the quality of our sleep. Concluding with a comprehensive list of everything we can do to free ourselves from the misery of tiredness and under performance in the day and sleeplessness at night. I'm going to listen again. And this time I'm taking notes.

Potentially life changing, which you cannot say about many books. The science is illuminating and the evidence is extremely persuasive.

It is not without flaws. The futurology and social commentary is less convincing. If you spend much of a book setting out the facts, supported by evidence, in order to build an argument that is not widely understood, you endanger your overall message if you veer off into ideas and opinions. In that regard it also felt padded a little.

The narration is very good, if a little "high and mighty" in its tone.

But pay little attention to these flaws. The core of this book is truly profound, and may cause you to rethink how you live your life.

And if you want an executive summary: Get another 30-60 mins sleep per night. You won't regret it.

This audiobook has given me a lot of good advice and knowledge on how my daytime habits affect my sleeping habits. Lots of research and stats, as well as 12 top tips for healthy sleep. You need to dip in and out rather than listen in one go, but I would certainly recommend Matthew Walker's audio.

A hearty NO! Matthew’s 20+ years of sleep studying and psychological tests have delivered some of the biggest results for humans in the betterment of themselves, their safety and society. This is a must read(or listen) book for all who are interested in prolonging their life or taking steps so as not to shorten it. John narrates the book wonderfully and really brings the enthusiasm that Matthew Walker pens. From increasing you chance of fighting off the common cold to even improving your chances of surviving cancer “Why We Sleep?” is an insightful and motivating book.

Wow . This book really sells sleep. you'll want to get to bed earlier and lie in later when you've read this. it seems scientifically proven grin what the author says,that we need our 8 hrs sleep,or there are multiple dire consequences....

I found this book really interesting. There's a load of information about how lack of sleep affects your health and performance in all sorts of ways. It made me think about my own sleep habits and some changes I could make to get better sleep.

It's well read and I think the chap's voice suits the content and tone of the book.

Given I will spend about 1/3 of my life asleep I figured learning more about it from a world renowned sleep scientist is probably the least I should do. I’m so glad I read this, it’s full of practical advise and has lots of stories to help explain concepts in a non academic way. Highly recommended.

At first glance a book on sleep doesn’t promise to be the most interesting. One chapter in and you realise this could be one of the most important books that you have been luckily enough to decide to read. Through provoking and some times shocking, this should be mandatory reading for anyone serious about living a healthy life. Thoroughly recommend.